An Evolutionary Clustering Analysis of Social Media Content and Global Infection Rates During the COVID-19 Pandemic

This study investigates the impact of global infection rates on social media posts during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study analysed over 179 million tweets posted between March 22 and April 13, 2020 and the global COVID-19 infection rates using evolutionary clustering analysis. Results showed six clusters constructed for each term type, including three-level [Formula: see text]-grams (unigrams, bigrams and trigrams). The frequent occurrences of unigrams (“COVID-19”, “virus”, “government”, “people”, etc.), bigrams (“COVID 19”, “COVID-19 cases”, “times share”, etc.) and trigrams (“COVID 19 crisis”, “things help stop” and “trying times share”) were identified. The results demonstrated that the unigram trends on Twitter were up to about two times and 54 times more common than the bigram terms and trigram terms, respectively. Unigrams like “home” or “need” also became important as these terms reflected the main concerns of people during this period. Taken together, the present findings confirm that many tweets were used to broadcast people’s prevalent topics of interest during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, the results indicate that the number of COVID-19 infections had a significant effect on all clusters, being strong on 86% of clusters and moderate on 16% of clusters. The downward slope in global infection rates reflected the start of the trending of “social distancing” and “stay at home”. These findings suggest that infection rates have had a significant impact on social media posting during the COVID-19 pandemic.

An evolutionary clustering analysis of the social media content and global infection rate during the COVID-19 pandemic (Preprint)

BACKGROUND COVID-19 has not only psychological but also economic and social effects and social media increased the negative effects by disseminating COVID-19 infodemic. OBJECTIVE This study aims to investigate impact of the global infection rate on social media posting during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS The study analyzed 179+ million tweets collected between March 22nd and April 13th, 2020, and global COVID-19 infection rate by using evolutionary clustering analysis. RESULTS The results indicated six clusters constructed for each term type, including three-level n-grams (unigrams, bigrams, and trigrams). The frequent occurrences of unigrams (“COVID-19”, “virus”, “government”, “people”, etc.), bigrams (“COVID-19”, “COVID-19 cases”, “times share”, etc.), and trigrams (“COVID 19 crisis”, “things help stop”, “trying times share”). The results demonstrated that the unigram trends on Twitter were up to about two times and 54 times more common than bigram and trigram terms, respectively. Unigrams like “home” or “need” also became important as these terms reflected the main concerns of people during this period. Taken together, the present findings confirm that many tweets were used to broadcast people’s prevalent topics of interest during the COVID-19 pandemic. Further, the results indicated that the number of COVID-19 infections has a significant impact on all clusters, being strong on 86% of clusters and moderate on 16% of clusters. The downward slope in the global infection rate reflected the start of the trending of “social distancing” and “stay at home.” CONCLUSIONS These findings suggested that infection rates have a significant impact on social media postings during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Morphology variations of click-evoked auditory brainstem response with low and high rate stimuli in rat

Background and Aim: The auditory brainstem response (ABR) is one of the most common obj­ective hearing tests conducting in animal and human. The purpose of this study was evalua­ting the morphology variations of ABR wave­forms in rats with low and high rate click sti­muli. Methods: First, rats with ABR thresholds hig­her than 55 dB SPL were excluded and total 81 ears remained in study. Absolute and interpeak latencies of wave I, II, IV were evaluated at low (17.7 Hz) and high rate (88.7 Hz) for click sti­muli at 120 dB SPL.. Results: At low rate stimuli, ABR waveforms showed different morphologies. The most com­mon complex for waves II to IV was wave III placed on downward slope of wave II (71% of cases). Almost the same morphologies were seen at higher rate; but in some waves, it rou­nded and decreased amplitude. For waves IV-V, the most common morphology was equal amp­litude of wave IV and V in low and high rates (35% vs 56%, respectively). Generally, the high rate stimuli didn’t severely change morphology patterns except for later waves. Conclusion: Normal click-evoked ABR could result in different waveforms. Using click sti­muli at low and high rate result in different mor­phology patterns. Recognizing morphology var­iations of ABR waveforms are essential for det­ecting any pathological conditions. The high rate stimuli increased latencies, especially for later waves.

Discovery of another new species of Charadrahyla (Anura, Hylidae) from the cloud forest of northern Oaxaca, México

Charadrahyla esperancensis, a new species of tree frog, is described from the cloud forest of Sierra d Juárez on the northern slopes of Oaxaca. This species is sympatric with C. nephila and is distinguished by the presence of a protuding snout with a distinctive downward slope posterior to the nostril in lateral view, with an evident rostral keel, and the flanks and anterior and posterior surfaces of limbs with yellow spots. With the discovery of this new species, the species number of the genus increases to seven and adds another species of Charadrahyla for the assemblage of anurans from northern Oaxaca. This is the first instance of sympatry of species in the genus Charadrahyla. Additionally, we provide a key to the species of the genus.